Workmen's advocate. (New Haven, Conn.) 1883-1891, 1887-08-27

other words this dlScOntent Is an eN,neS-
sion of the natural tendency in all organ
isms to seek harmony with their envi-
ronment. Is then this law of progress
which has been in operation through
the aeons of the past going To stop now
because we cannot decide whether the
anarchist bomb or Mr. Atkinson's pot
tage is on the line of the least resist
ance? Or rather is it not more reason
able to infer that the law which unites
us on on a common basis of discomfort
will also ultimately unite us on the
method of reform necessary to bring the
social organism into harmony with the
changed economic conditions?
Let us see then if we cannot discover
how the action of this law tends toward
unity. Taking a general view Of human
relations, we see that easy circumstances
contentmcnt and conservatism are close
~ related, as also are distress. discomfort
and radicalism at the opposite pole and
that III our present highly complex and
timely graded civilization where crcum-
stances vary extremely, pressing intoler'
ably here and hardly touching there " e
have condition of things SO highly dis
cordant that an uniform idea of neces-
sary ameliorations is impossible: those
placed where necessity presses the hard
est wanting total change of conditions,
while those placed where necessity is r ot
felt at all naturally obj It to any change
whatever; and SO on in all the intcrme-
date positions between these two eX-
tremes, greater or less change is de-
sired according as the position of the
individual approXimates to the one, to
the other, or according to the breadth
and intensity of his sympathies. Thus
necessity presses the hardest at the bot
tom of the social scale, where the direct
contact of nature is felt, crushing the
lower classes against the resistance of
the higher But the discomfort, rapidly
passing into despair, so generated at the
bottom, gradually loses strength as it
rises, becoming merely a vague feeling
OF unrest and insecurity as it reaches the
top. Now see how this state of things
tends to destroy itself as all discord ulti-
mately must. If the pressure of neces-
| slty always remained the same existing
relations might continue ad infnifnm,
but the force increases rs it is resisted.
There is the gist of the whole matter,
and it thus follows that the growth Of
the emergency will finally make itself
felt uniformly throughout the whole
community, when the sleek self com
| placency of conservatism will be swal-
lowed up in general distress. And in
! the process toward this elimination the
utter uselessness of the thousand and
one petty reforms and wretched make
shifts which distract and divide us now
will have been practically demonstrated.
| While at the same time the one vital
reform will thereby become clear and
self-evident. Here we have natural
selection and the evolution of unity, or
to repeat discomfort constantly tending
| to increase while its cause remains is but
the effort of the social organism to place
itself in harmony with its surrounding
conditions and harmony is unity.
That we cannot achieve this unity now
by any amount of conventioning and
platform work, however ingenius, is be-
cause our existing forms have not yet
developed their full effects. Every dog
has his day and this is still the day of
Capitalism; but even now its sun is sink
ing toward the horizon and in it's declin-
ing rays little men make big shadows.
w. II. HORN.